My Little Pony Friendship is Magic hosts an array of creatures that have a counterpart in both mythology and fantasy, some of which are far more removed from their realistic counterpart than usual animals.

A few creatures, like dragons and Diamond Dogs, have speaking roles and display sapience when interacting with the protagonists. Others behave more like animals and neither speak nor display sapience. While most beings are from real-life known myths and legends, others are completely original and made up for the show, such as breezies.

Ahuizotl is a dog-like creature from the book Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone who first appears in the episode Read It and Weep. He is Daring Do's archenemy in her quest to retrieve the sapphire stone. He has an elongated dog-like head, with eyes positioned over his nose at the end of his snout. He walks on all fours, with dog-like hind limbs and ape-like forelimbs, and a long monkey-like tail with a hand on its end. Ahuizotl has a tuxedo-style coat, having dark blue fur over most of his body, while his stomach, jaws and hands are of a lighter blue. Ahuizotl wears golden colored jewelry, such as a necklace, a single ear ring, and three bracelets, one for each foreleg, and one around his tail's wrist. He is voiced by Brian Drummond.[1]

In Aztec mythology, the Ahuizotl bears an appearance similar to that of a canine. It has waterproof fur often clumping up to create spikes and an additional hand on its tail.

Bite-acuda

Bite-acudas are ravenous piranha-like fish with wings and long fangs that appear in the season eight episode Non-Compete Clause. They dwell in the river along Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and the Young Six's river canoeing path. Their name is a portmanteau of "barracuda" and "bite".

Bufogren

A Bufogren appears in the season eight episode The End in Friend. It is a large, sapient, frog-like creature with six eyes. It also has a low speaking voice, very sensitive ears, and rancid-smelling breath. Rainbow Dash and Rarity encounter the Bufogren while searching for the missing Amulet of Aurora, and Rarity makes a minty paste out of mint leaves and a tuft of cloud to freshen its breath.

Bugbear

A bugbear appears in the season five episode Slice of Life. It is a large creature with the upper body, arms, and legs of a panda bear and the antennae, wings, and stinger of a bumblebee.

The bugbear was captured and imprisoned in Tartarus some time ago by Sweetie Drops, a member of a secret anti-monster agency in Canterlot. After it escaped, the agency was disbanded, and Sweetie Drops went into hiding under the assumed name "Bon Bon". When the bugbear attacks Ponyville, the Mane Six spend the episode fighting it off, eventually defeating it off-screen.

Centaur

A centaur called Lord Tirek first appears in Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1. He possesses a humanoid upper body with reddish skin, grey hair, a black coat covering his torso, black eyes with yellow pupils, and a lower body and horns resembling that of a black bull.

Cerberus is a giant three-headed dog that first appears in It's About Time. According to Twilight, Cerberus is responsible for guarding the gates of Tartarus and that, with Cerberus away from Tartarus, the "ancient evil creatures" imprisoned there could escape and destroy Equestria.

In Greek and Roman mythology, Cerberus, or Kerberos, was a multi-headed dog-like beast with a serpent's tail that was responsible for guarding the gates of Hades and keeping the dead from leaving. Heracles was sent to capture Cerberus as one of his twelve labors.

Changelings first appear in A Canterlot Wedding - Part 2 and are the minions of Queen Chrysalis. They have a pony-like appearance along with insect features. They change their appearance to match that of ponies; in particular, Queen Chrysalis shapeshifts into Princess Cadance and several changelings take the form of Twilight Sparkle and her friends. They have sheer insect-like wings, fangs, horns that are used for magic, and holes in their legs. After being convinced by Starlight Glimmer to share their love with one another instead of feeding on it in To Where and Back Again - Part 2, most of the changelings metamorphose into new forms, gaining brighter colors and luminescent wings and losing their leg holes and fangs.

The changeling queen explains that the changelings feed on love; Changelings in folklore would take advantage of the love given to them by their unwitting caretakers.

A female chimera appears in the episode Somepony to Watch Over Me. It is a fearsome creature with a saber-toothed tiger's front body and head, a goat's hindquarters and head on its left shoulder, and a snake for a tail. Apple Bloom encounters the monster in the Flame Geyser Swamp on her way to deliver apple pies to a faraway town for Applejack. The chimera attacks Apple Bloom with intent of eating her and the pies, but Applejack saves her and tames the monster with a snake-charming flute, a lion tamer's chair, and a hunk of ricotta cheese. The three heads address each other as sisters, and suggest a history of bickering with each other, claiming they can never agree on what to eat, and fighting over who should be in charge.

Cipactli[3] is a giant crocodile/toad-like creature that appears in the season six episode Stranger Than Fan Fiction. When Rainbow Dash, Quibble Pants, and Dr. Caballeron enter the Temple of Chicomoztoc, Quibble Pants accidentally unleashes Cipactli by stepping on several pressure plates on the floor. Daring Do saves Rainbow and Quibble before Cipactli can harm them, and it spends the rest of the episode swimming in mud. Cipactli is last seen chasing after Caballeron and his henchponies.

A cockatrice is featured in the episode Stare Master. Fluttershy tells the Cutie Mark Crusaders that they are fearsome, dangerous creatures that have the "head of a chicken and the body of a snake." After venturing into the Everfree Forest, Fluttershy finds Twilight turned to stone and lying on the ground with a shocked expression on her face. The Cutie Mark Crusaders witness the cockatrice turn the missing chicken into stone and are terrified. They hide behind Fluttershy, who stares at the cockatrice and demands it to restore Twilight and her missing chicken back to normal, even as she herself slowly turns to stone. The cockatrice finally relents and Fluttershy's stone shell shatters. Twilight and the chicken both return to normal, showing that the cockatrice's stoning effect is reversible; subsequently Twilight retains no memory of the event.

In School Raze - Part 1, a cockatrice appears imprisoned in Tartarus. In Part 2, Twilight uses the natural magic inside the cockatrice so she and her friends can escape, temporarily separating the cockatrice into a chicken and a snake.

When Twilight Sparkle attempts to cross a bubbly creek in the Everfree Forest, she inadvertently awakens a cragadile from its slumber, and in its rage, it attacks her and her friends. Using the black vines that had grown all over the forest, Twilight's friends muzzle and restrain the cragadile before it could hurt Twilight.

As the name suggests, the cragadile's design mostly resembles that of a crocodile, but its hide is covered in rocks.

Cragadiles are also mentioned in The Journal of the Two Sisters and The End in Friend. In Frenemies, Queen Chrysalis briefly transforms into a cragadile. In The Last Crusade, Scootaloo's parents keep a cragadile named Marshmallow. A cragadile also appears in Good Night, Baby Flurry Heart during Shining Armor's bedtime story.

Cyclops

A cyclops named Arimaspi appears in flashback in The Lost Treasure of Griffonstone. He is a giant, one-eyed monster who resembles a dark gray goat with a humanoid upper body, similar to a minotaur, and he wears golden jewelry on his body. He is first mentioned in Grampa Gruff's tale of the griffons' downfall, in which Arimaspi stole the griffons' treasured golden Idol of Boreas, but was nearly struck by lightning and plummeted into the Abysmal Abyss with the idol, which was lost. Gilda later finds his skull near the idol on a ledge in the abyss while rescuing Rainbow Dash.

The official map of Equestria shows an area called "Arimaspi Territory" in the south-west of Equestria, far away from Griffonstone. At its top, there is a giant cyclops skull. Arimaspi also appears on the season five character poster.

Arimaspi is based on the cyclopes of Greek mythology, while his name is taken from a mythological race of people who warred with griffons over their gold. Because human characters couldn't appear in the show, Rebecca Dart stated in My Little Pony: The Art of Equestria that she made Arimaspi a half-mountain goat, half-mountain gorilla creature to ensure he "worked within the pony world". As revealed in The Art of My Little Pony The Movie, a scrapped prologue for the film involved an Arimaspi king.

After transforming, all three humans gain flame-like hair, tattered bat-like wings capable of flight, four clawed fingers, pointed ears, sharp teeth with elongated fangs, and forked tongues. Their clothing also changes, with Sunset wearing a flame-patterned frock and boots, while Snips and Snails wear similarly patterned tunics and leggings. However, Sunset's demon form appears more monstrous: she increases in size, her voice deepens, her skin turns a reddish color, her ears are more jagged, the sclera of her eyes become black, her nose shortens, her mouth is more stretched out, and she gains a flame-like tail and hair. Snips and Snails retain their normal skin color and size, and have red eyes and no tails.

The three are returned to their normal human forms by the element of magic's power wielded by Twilight Sparkle and her friends. In My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks, Sunset Shimmer describes her transformed self as "a raging she-demon." In the same film, Twilight refers to this form as "that horrifyingly awful winged monster." Sunset also refers to her corrupted form as "a powerful demon" in a recap of the first two Equestria Girls movies that aired before the initial showing of Friendship Games on Discovery Family Channel.

In various real-life cultures and references to the Holy Bible, demons are evil creatures that are often controlled by more powerful, malevolent beings, or have the power to control other beings themselves. They are commonly depicted in Western cultures as having red skin, wings, and horns.

Diamond Dogs are dog-like creatures who appear in A Dog and Pony Show, where they kidnap Rarity and force her to find gems with her horn for them in their underground mine. They get annoyed very often by Rarity when she complains and whines to trick them into letting her free. Their manner of speaking is reminiscent of Smeagol from The Lord of the Rings.

A statue of a draconequus (/drəˈkɒnəkwəs/druh-KON-uh-kwuhs) is described by Cheerilee in The Return of Harmony Part 1 as a creature with "the head of a pony and a body of all sorts of other things." The statue happens to be Discord, whom Princess Celestia describes as "the mischievous spirit of disharmony." The word "draconequus" was coined by Lauren Faust, and it is composed of the Greek word drakon, meaning dragon, and the Latin equus, meaning horse. It is spelled draconequus by Hasbro's My Little Pony Twitter account, in the trading cards, and by Faust, dragonokis on The Hub's website, draconequis in the television closed captions, and draconaquis in Netflix's closed captions.

My Little Pony: Nightmare Knights introduces an alternate universe counterpart to Discord named Princess Eris; she describes herself as her world's Lord of Chaos and Discord's cousin. Unlike Discord, Eris' body mainly resembles that of an anthropomorphic peacock, with ram horns and bat wings. According to Jeremy Whitley, her design is based on the Sarimanok, a mythological bird of the Maranao people in the Philippines.

Dragons are a species of giant fire-breathing reptilian monsters based on European lore, predominantly out of Scandinavian mythology. Various dragons appear as antagonists. Spike is a baby dragon and one of the main characters.

In real life, dragons are legendary reptile-like creatures that are featured in the myths of various cultures around the world.

Flash bee

Flash bees appear in the episode A Health of Information. They are a species of bee-like insects that are native to the Hayseed Swamp. Like real bees, they consist of a queen and drones, travel in swarms, pollinate flowers, and produce honey. Unlike real bees, however, they have blue and yellow stripes instead of the common black and yellow, and their stingers are shaped like lightning bolts. Flash bees are immune to the poisonous flowers that spread Swamp Fever, and as a result, their honey contains a cure for the disease. They are also immune to Fluttershy's Stare.

Fly-der

Fly-ders appear in the episodes Campfire Tales, Sounds of Silence, and School Raze - Part 1. They are a race of green-skinned multi-legged insects that fly, bite, and spin webs. Their name is a portmanteau of "fly" and "spider". According to Applejack, Fly-ders are mostly native to the Luna Bay area of Equestria and presumably drawn to food.

Fruit bat

Fruit bats appear in the episode Apple Family Reunion and are mentioned in the episode Bats! Unlike real-life fruit bats, these bats come in the colors of the rainbow and resemble fruit, the midsections of red fruit bats in particular resembling strawberries; they also appear to have leaves for ears. A colony of fruit bats inhabit the trees of one of Sweet Apple Acres' west orchards. Several fruit bats also appear in Dr. Fauna's clinic in Fluttershy Leans In.

Vampire fruit bat

Relatives of fruit bats called vampire fruit bats infest Sweet Apple Acres in the episode Bats!. Unlike their more colorful counterparts, vampire fruit bats are dark in color, and have red eyes and long fangs. They are considered vermin by the Apple family for their tendency to suck apples of their juice during harvest season. However, their habit of spitting out the apples' seeds has the long-term benefit of growing healthier, more productive apple trees. When Fluttershy's friends' plan to tame the bats backfires, Applejack ultimately agrees to build a sanctuary for the bats to live and feed without ruining her orchards.

They are mentioned by Fluttershy in the chapter book Applejack and the Honest-to-Goodness Switcheroo.

A gargoyle named Scorpan appears in a book depiction in Twilight's Kingdom - Part 1. In a legend recounted by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, he and his brother Tirek come from "a distant land" with the intent of stealing Equestrianmagic. However, Scorpan comes to appreciate the ponies' ways and befriends a young Star Swirl the Bearded. When Tirek remains resolute in their plan despite Scorpan's urges to reconsider, Scorpan alerts the princesses of his brother's intentions, resulting in Tirek's imprisonment in Tartarus. Afterward, Scorpan returns to his homeland.

In Secrets and Pies, stone gargoyles surround a rather decrepit version of Ponyville town hall in Pinkie Pie's fantasy sequence.

Great Seedling

The Great Seedling is discussed and briefly featured in the season nine episode Going to Seed. Deer-like in appearance with tree branches for antlers, it is described by Goldie Delicious as a magical Earth spirit that travels from farm to farm daring ponies to catch him. Those that do catch him are rewarded with farm crops that remain in bloom forever.

Apple Bloom and later Applejack spend the episode trying to catch the Great Seedling during the Confluence. According to Applejack, the Great Seedling is a fictional creature that grown ponies made up in order to make harvest time fun for little foals.

Hippogriffs are creatures that have the head, claws, and wings of an eagle and the hind legs and tail of a pony. They are featured prominently in My Little Pony The Movie and its supplemental materials. Queen Novo of the seaponies and her subjects used to be Hippogriffs that lived in the city of Hippogriffia on the top of Mount Aris. When the Storm King and his forces invaded their land, Queen Novo used her magic to transform herself and her subjects into seaponies, and they fled to the ocean.[5]

In the film, Novo's daughter Princess Skystar takes her original Hippogriff form in order to travel on land with Twilight Sparkle and her friends. Novo's niece Silverstream is introduced in School Daze - Part 1, and her sister Ocean Flow, brother-in-law Sky Beak, and nephew Terramar are introduced in Surf and/or Turf. It is also revealed in that episode that some of the seaponies have decided to remain as seaponies and live in Seaquestria, while others have decided to return to their Hippogriff forms and repopulate Mount Aris.

Other notable Hippogriff characters include Stratus Skyranger, a high-ranking Hippogriff royal guard, and Seaspray, a general in the Hippogriff navy.

Hydra

A hydra residing in Froggy Bottom Bogg chases the main characters in Feeling Pinkie Keen. The hydra has four heads on snake-like necks and a large, orange, dragon-like body, with only two legs and no wings or arms. The ponies note a smelly gas that envelops it as it rises from the bog, and a tick-like insect can be seen on its neck during this scene. Before chasing the ponies, it roars and licks its lips. The heads sometimes display different expressions and even laugh at each other's misfortunes. One head is noticeably slower to react than the others.

In Molt Down, Smolder mentions that hydras are drawn to the smell of a dragon's molt.

A jackalope appears in the episode Filli Vanilli during Music in the Treetops, and is fed by Fluttershy along with a rabbit in the same rabbit hole. As opposed to its vampiric counterparts, this kind is depicted as being passive.

The cream-colored jackalope cared for by Fluttershy lives alongside a normal-looking rabbit.

Manticore

A manticore named Manny Roar[6] poses an obstacle to the main characters in Friendship is Magic, part 2 after Nightmare Moon deliberately enrages him. Manny Roar has the body of a lion, a scorpion's tail, and a pair of dragon-like wings. Similar to Aesop's fable of The Lion and The Mouse, as well as the fable of Androcles and the Lion. Fluttershy calms him when she shows him kindness by removing a painful thorn from his paw. In Magical Mystery Cure, Manny Roar's paw appears in one of Fluttershy's flashbacks. In No Second Prances, Trixie incorporates a different manticore[7] with horns and smaller ears into her magic act. In a flashback in Celestial Advice, Princess Celestia gets worried that Twilight might meet a manticore if she sends her to Ponyville. In School Raze - Part 1, a manticore appears imprisoned in Tartarus. In Part 2, Twilight uses the natural magic inside the manticore so she and her friends can escape, temporarily separating the manticore into a lion and a scorpion.

In Persian mythology, the manticore is a creature with a red lion's body, a human-like face, a mouth with shark-like rows of sharp teeth, and a voice like a trumpet. Additional features such as a scorpion-like or spike-covered tail, bat-like wings, and the ability to launch poisonous spines at its enemies depend on the story. It is considered a man-eater, often leaving no remains, not even bones or clothing.

A maulwurf is a large mole-like creature that appears in the episode To Change a Changeling. It is described by Starlight Glimmer as "half-bear, half-mole, half-raging-pile-of-claws". The maulwurf mostly resembles a giant star-nosed mole with blue fur, large forearms, and multiple light-blue appendages around its snout. It menaces the changelings and eats the plants that grow around their kingdom. It has an extremely thick hide, allowing it to shrug off magic blasts from a unicorn, and withstand having a large chunk of rock thrown at its head. In School Raze - Part 1, a maulwurf appears imprisoned in Tartarus.

In Greek mythology, the Minotaur was a therianthropic (humanoid) monster with the head of a bull and the body of a man. The word Minotaur derives from the Greek words minos, meaning king, and tauros, meaning bull, giving it the literal translation as either "king bull" or the "kings' bull."

Ophiotaurus

An Ophiotaurus is a creature with the upper body of a bull and the lower body of a serpent that appears in Frenemies. In the forests near Mt. Everhoof, an Ophiotaurus is drawn to the sound of Cozy Glow and Lord Tirek's arguing and attacks them. They are saved when Queen Chrysalis transforms into a female Ophiotaurus, causes the other Ophiotaurus to become infatuated with her, and drains it of its love.

In Greek mythology, the Ophiotaurus is a half-bull half-serpent creature whose entrails were said to grant the power to defeat the gods to whomever burned them.

Orthros

A dog with two heads called an orthros[note 1] appears in the episode Trade Ya! Rainbow Dash trades a Discord-shaped lamp to his owner for him and trades him to a collector of Daring Do books for a first-edition copy of Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue. As a condition of the trade, Fluttershy agrees to relocate to Manehattan for a time to help the Daring Do collector train the orthros. After the trade is called off, Rainbow Dash trades the orthros for a bird whistle, for Fluttershy. The orthros is shown to give obedience difficulties to both his original owner and prospective owner, but he is calm and obedient toward Fluttershy. One head is that of a Saint Bernard, the other head appears to be a generic mutt.

An orthros also appears in episode 8 of Baby Flurry Heart's Heartfelt Scrapbook, "Land of Harmony". A concept design for the orthros seen in The Art of Equestria shows it originally having a snake tail, similar to the chimera in Somepony to Watch Over Me.

In Greek mythology, Orthrus – or Orthros – is a two-headed dog and a brother of Cerberus.

Parasprites are small, round, flying creatures that quickly become problematic in Swarm of the Century. In the beginning of the episode, Fluttershy witnesses a parasprite devour an entire basket of apples in mere seconds. The main characters realize that parasprites are capable of multiplying very quickly, and soon they become a destructive infestation in Ponyville. Lauren Faust drew parallels between Swarm of the Century and the Star Trek episode The Trouble With Tribbles.[9] Both parasprites and tribbles are initially regarded as cute pets, but their rapid multiplication and voracious appetites turn them into pests and menaces, though they themselves are harmless.

Phoenixes appear in A Bird in the Hoof, Dragon Quest, and Molt Down. In A Bird in the Hoof, Princess Celestia's pet is revealed to be Philomena, a phoenix. Philomena appears to be very sick, losing her few remaining feathers, persistently coughing, and being unresponsive to Fluttershy's numerous treatments. After chasing an evasive Philomena through the streets of Ponyville, Fluttershy witnesses Philomena burst into flames, but Princess Celestia explains that phoenixes need to renew themselves by shedding all of their feathers and bursting into flames. The renewed Philomena is bright red with golden-lined wings, and complies with Rainbow Dash's whispered request to tickle the Royal guards. The two even "high-five" at the end. In Dragon Quest, two phoenix parents defend themselves and their hatchlings against a gang of teenage dragons. During this skirmish Spike is able to rescue one of the unhatched phoenix eggs from the teenage dragons, and briefly ends up caring for the newly hatched baby phoenix, naming him Peewee. A series of pictures panned over in Just for Sidekicks shows Spike returning the baby phoenix to the two adults. In Molt Down, Zecora tells Rarity, who is hard of hearing, that prolonged exposure to phoenix feathers can cause hearing loss to a pony.

The Phoenix is derived from Greek mythology, often associated with the sun. According to Greek lore phoenixes are aviary beings that have survived for prolonged life-spans, measuring up to thousands of years. They accomplish this feat by bursting into flame during old age and then arise from their ashes into an earlier, youthful, stage of their lives. Phoenix is also one of the 88 modern constellations, it is named and modeled after the same mythical bird. The mythical fire-bird appears frequently in popular media and has been referenced several times in pop culture.

There are also several other mythological birds from different cultures that share similar properties with the phoenix.

In real-life Native American folklore, pukwudgies are creatures said to be two or three feet tall. Depending on legend, they can appear and disappear at will, lure people to their deaths, use magic, launch poison arrows, and create fire.

Quarray eel

Quarray eels, named and seen in May the Best Pet Win!, are large burgundy-colored eels that live in holes in the side of Ghastly Gorge. Their name is a play on "moray eels" and "quarry." When Rainbow Dash races through the gorge in this episode, she tells her prospective pets that the eels become agitated when anyone gets too close to their nests. The eels proceed to pop their heads out of their caves, trying to eat the contestants as they pass by.

After Rainbow Dash dodges all of the eels with relative ease, the other animals try to make it through: the bat is almost swallowed by one of the eels but manages to escape out of the creature's nostril. The eagle almost has its head bitten off by another eel. The owl props open a third eel's jaws with its wings, and the falcon gets its tail feathers bitten by a fourth eel but manages to escape the eel's grip.

The Curse of the Statuettes features a baby roc and his mother the Wind Guardian.​[​specify​]​The Bestiary of Equestria states, "Born of earth and a master of the air, the Roc is a gigantic bird with slates instead of feathers! Although scary, and indeed you shouldn’t cross one without good reason, Rocs are very calm creatures and understand pony language quite well, though they cannot speak it. One thing that a Roc hates is being ridden – if it decides to carry anypony, it will do so in its great talons if it does so at all."

In Middle Eastern mythology, the Roc is an enormous legendary bird of prey popularly featured in Arabian fairy tales and sailing folklore, including the tales of Abd al-Rahman and Sinbad the Sailor.

The sea serpent featured in Friendship is Magic, part 2 and Slice of Life has a long serpentine body, reminiscent of an Asian dragon, with fish fins instead of ears, purple scales and orange hair, eyebrows, and mustache. His hair is arranged in a pompadour style. He was later named Steven Magnet in merchandise. He is one of the obstacles that the Mane Six face in their quest for the Elements of Harmony.

Sea serpents are a common type of monster that originates from several mythological sources, most notably from Greek and Scandinavian lore, as well as from the Bible. The moustache also makes the serpent seen in the pilot reminiscent of the East-Asian mythological river dragons.

During the film, the Dazzlings use their songs to control the students of Canterlot High School and advance to the final round in the Mane Event. They are eventually defeated by Twilight Sparkle, Sunset Shimmer, and the Rainbooms when their gem pendants are destroyed and they are stripped of their powers.

In Equestria, the sirens' appearance is more similar to that of a hippocampus, another mythical sea creature, rather than a traditional siren. In the human world, the Dazzlings' anthropomorphic forms possess translucent fins on their backs, like those on their true forms' front legs. Their siren forms are summoned as astral projections from their pendants and are used to battle, and ultimately weaken, the Rainbooms.

A different-looking sphinx appears in the episode Daring Done? in the legend of Somnambula. It is a giant, magical, four-legged creature with the head of a pony, the body of a lion, and the wings of an eagle. It has some level of magic, able to cast a spell that prevents Pegasus flight in her pyramid, and manifest a blindfold over Somnambula's eyes. In Somnambula's legend, the sphinx menaces a desert village and claims most of its crops for herself. When the son of the pharaoh stands up to the sphinx, she captures him and challenges the other villagers with a riddle for his release. Somnambula beats the sphinx's riddle challenge as well as her blindfolded bridge-walking challenge, and the sphinx flies off in a rage. She is a character called "Sphinx" in Gameloft's mobile game. The game's description of her states, "Hobbies include riddles, long walks inside her pyramid, and menacing Southern Equestria."

In Egyptian and Greek mythology, the sphinx is a creature with the head of a human, the body of a lion, and sometimes the wings of a bird or snake as a tail.

Storm Creature

Storm Creatures are the foot soldiers of the Storm King in My Little Pony The Movie and associated material; they are occupationally referred to as Storm Guards in the film and some merchandise and as Storm Minions, Storm Minion Commanders, Storm Minion Boltcasters, and Storm Minion Spellshields in The Official Movie Sourcebook. They have bulky physiques, hunched backs, gray coats, white hair, and black mask-like faces. The Storm Guards serve as the Storm King's army, invading Canterlot alongside Tempest Shadow and Grubber and taking the ponies prisoner. Two of them serve as Tempest's bodyguards, distinguishable from the other Storm Creatures by the purple streaks in their hair.

Tantabus

The Tantabus is a dream creature that appears in Do Princesses Dream of Magic Sheep? It is an amorphous creature of blue starry smoke that infests and feeds on ponies' dreams, turning them into nightmares. According to Princess Luna, the Tantabus gets stronger with each additional pony's dreams it infects. With enough power, it could potentially escape into the real world.

Throughout the episode, Luna pursues the Tantabus across the Mane Six's dreams, and it turns each dream that it passes through into a nightmare. When Luna brings everyone in Ponyville into a single shared dream, the Tantabus grows to immense size. Luna reveals that she created the Tantabus to give herself nightmares as punishment for her actions as Nightmare Moon and that her crippling guilt gives the Tantabus power. With the Mane Six's help, Luna manages to let go of her tortured past, causing the Tantabus to lose its power. Luna draws the weakened Tantabus back inside herself.

A Tatzlwurm[17] appears in Three's A Crowd. It is a subterranean worm-like creature with a tripartite jaw and a maw containing black tentacles that can reach out and grab its prey. It also has scales and a red mane-like structure behind its head. It appears to be vulnerable to offensive unicorn and Alicornmagic. The creature's sneeze transmits tatzl-flu to others, such as Discord.

In Molt Down, Smolder mentions that Tatzlwurms are drawn to the smell of a dragon's molt.

A Tatzlwurm also appears in My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #47 as the cause of earthquakes in Ponyville that collapse a new playground and several cottages. According to Fluttershy, Tatzlwurms "see" by feeling vibrations in the ground; they are attracted to small vibrations but frightened by large ones. A Tatzlwurm also appears in episode 2 of Fundamentals of Magic, "Magical Creatures".

The Tatzlwurm is named after the Tatzelwurm of Alpine folklore, though this version of the creature more closely resembles a "Graboid" from the movie Tremors.

Timberwolves first appear in the episode Family Appreciation Day. Their name is a play on two real-life types of gray wolf, which are also known as timber wolves. Their bodies are comprised of twigs, logs, and leaves.

A tri-horned bunyip appears in the episode P.P.O.V. (Pony Point of View). In the episode, it lives in the deep ocean near Seaward Shoals, and Twilight deduces that it is what caused Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie's boat to sink when their cucumber sandwiches, its favorite food, fell into its ocean home. The bunyip apologizes to the ponies for disrupting their trip, and it later enjoys their company. It also appears in episode 2 of Fundamentals of Magic, "Magical Creatures".

Twittermite

Twittermites are small, winged insect-like creatures that appear in Apple Bloom's dream in the episode Bloom & Gloom. They have round bluish-gray bodies, large purple eyes, short black claws, fibrous wings, and bright blue lightning bolt-shaped antennae and stingers. They shoot bolts of electricity at unsuspecting victims, and launch larger bolts when in a swarm. The Pest Control Pony explains to Apple Bloom that the farther apart they swarm, the more powerful their electric bolts become. When Apple Bloom has her pest control pony cutie mark, the twittermites corral together when she calls them.

Ursa

Ursa minor and ursa major appear in Boast Busters as gigantic magical bears with fur that looks like the night sky, and are partially translucent. At the start of the episode, Trixie boasts that she defeated an ursa major that was attacking Hoofington. Snips and Snails go into the Everfree Forest, intending to find an ursa major and lead it back to Ponyville, hoping to see Trixie defeat it. They find one and get chased by it into Ponyville. Trixie is forced to admit she did not vanquish an ursa and cannot defeat this one. Trixie also admits, "No one can vanquish an ursa major." The ursa turns out to be an ursa minor. Twilight uses her magic to lull the bear with a lullaby and soothes it with a gigantic container of cow milk. The sleeping ursa minor is peacefully returned to its mother, an ursa major. The ursa minor is shown again in Magic Duel in a flashback to the events of Boast Busters. The ursa major is the largest creature seen in My Little Pony Friendship is Magic.

The Boast Busters story gallery on Hasbro's website uses alternate depictions of the ursa minor as being bright green, and both ursas are completely opaque.[18] The ursa minor Tempest encountered in her youth also appears in the "Story of a Storm" storyline in Gameloft's mobile game.

Ursa Major and Ursa Minor are constellations seen in the northern hemisphere; the ursas in the show have unusually long tails for bears, much like their constellation namesakes. Their mother-and-child relationship mirrors the Greek origin myth of the Ursa constellations, where Zeus turned the nymph Callisto and her son into bears and placed them in the night sky.

Fluttershy turns into a vampire fruit bat-pony hybrid in the episode Bats! after Twilight Sparkle casts a spell on the bats while she uses her stare on them. She consequently takes on vampire fruit bat-like traits: fangs, ear and wing styles, paler color, red eyes, hunger for apple juice, animalistic instinct, and aggressiveness. Moreover, her mane and tail become much more rugged and unkempt and her cutie mark changes from butterflies to bats. She is eventually defeated and reverted to normal when the rest of her friends use her own stare against her. In this form, she was christened "Flutterbat," as coined by Rarity.

In My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Issue #33, Twilight uses Flutterbat as the template for a transformation spell, giving herself and her friends similar abilities with greater control. They also adopt new monikers to match their forms: Twilight Sparkling, Appeldrac, Drinkie Pie, Nosfurarity, and Rainbow Bite.

In the mythology of the Algonquian people, the Wendigo, or Windigo, is a malevolent, anthropophagic supernatural spirit or deity being strongly associated with the winter, the North, coldness, as well as famine and starvation. It has been thought to be an ice-giant that eats people whole. The word windigo is also often used to describe or name people who have gone mad or are thought to be cannibals, such as in Louise Erdrich's Love Medicine.

Winterchilla

A winterchilla is a small rodent-like creature with fuzzy fur, large ears, thin fluff-tipped tails, whiskers, and six limbs. It is featured in the holiday special My Little Pony Best Gift Ever and the Best Gift EverstorybookA Present for Everypony. Its name is a portmanteau of "winter" and "chinchilla".

Rainbow Dash, assisted by Discord, tracks down a winterchilla to give to Fluttershy as a Hearth's Warming present. Discord describes winterchillas as "small, adorable, fuzzy, and fast". They succeed in catching one, but when the sun goes down, it transforms into a giant, monstrous version of itself called a winterzilla. When the winterzilla goes on a rampage, Fluttershy coerces it to calm down with her Stare. Its name is a portmanteau of "winter" and "-zilla".

The winterzilla is a character in Gameloft's mobile game. Its in-game description states, "Formerly a fluffy, adorable little winterchilla... until the sun set, anyway."

Later in the same issue, the ponies are attacked by a giant tarantula and a group of giant spiders, which appear to have markings similar to cutie marks. They attack the Main six and seize Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy; but they are defeated when Pinkie Pie brings the cave troll to attack the giant tarantula, which she then calls Fluffy. One of the spiders shares its color scheme and cutie mark with Derpy.

Carnivorous flowers (referred to as petunias, carnations, and pansies) attack Applejack and Rarity, after the latter attempts to pick them to accessorize. The ponies then use them as parachutes.

A chupacabra attacks Twilight and Fluttershy, mistaking them for goats; a group of vampiric jackalopes later attacks Rainbow and Pinkie. After the groups run into each other, the Chupacabra and Jackalopes attack each other, as Fluttershy explains that they are "natural enemies."

Issue #4

Princess Celestia mentions that due to the passing of the Secretariat comet, Manehattan was attacked by a "giant, magical marshmallow pony."

Issues #5-8

Princess Luna describes that the peaceful inhabitants of the moon have been trapped under the spell of the Nightmare Forces, turning them into shadowy creatures, such as "Shadowfright". At the end of Issue #8, the moon creatures return to normal, losing their shadowy appearance and taking on forms resembling normal animals. Spike refers to them as "nightmares" in My Little Pony: Friends Forever Issue #3; Nightmare is also a character in Gameloft's mobile game. Its bio states "A victim of the evil forces that once fed on Luna's darkest thoughts, transforming her into Nightmare Moon. The fact that this one isn't ON the moon right now is...not ideal." In My Little Pony: FIENDship is Magic Issue #4, the inhabitants of the moon are referred to as nyx. They also appear in the WeLoveFineDark Night art print and T-shirt.

In Issue #7 Spike founds a group of Moon Slugs who help him to enter to Nightmare Rarity's castle without being noticed and return in Issue #8 helping Spike escape taking his form making Shadowfright believe that he's using the silent treatment.

Issue #11

During Shining Armor and his friends' game, Poindexter plays an "elf-Pegasus" character.

Issue #13

Hippocampi are shown on an alternate version of cover B.

Issue #15-16

A bookworm invades the Golden Oak Library with the intention of eating all the books. In the process, it traps Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity in a blank book void and brings literary characters to life via magical cocoons. In Issue #16, he changes his ways after realizing the damage his voracity has caused and helps the Mane 6 save Ponyville.

Issue #18

Issue #19

Spike refers to the alternate universe of Princess Luna's shadow disguise as a ghost.

Issue #23

A kelpie named Cassie uses her singing to control the minds of ponies and compel the citizens of Ponyville to destroy a dam near the town. To Angel's horror, Cassie aims to flood the area. However, she only wishes to do so for the benefit of the water sprites, who cannot reach the ocean unless a path of water is prepared near Ponyville. In Scottish mythology, a kelpie is an equine water spirit associated with drownings. Cassie has the head and mane of a pony, the body of a serpent, eel-like tail, and four gangling fins which are arrayed in a similar fashion to that of the spines on her back.

Issue #24

Discord shows Fluttershy and the Cutie Mark Crusaders a number of creatures across time and space: jackals and sentient cats in the ancient civilization of Anugypt, cyborg and alien-like ponies in the future, kelpies in the underwater city of Coltlantis (which bear a closer resemblance to hippocampi than to Cassie in the previous issue), and dinosaurs and a butterdragon in prehistoric Equestrian times.

Issues #27-28

The Mane Six encounter several creatures in the Everfree Forest, including an owlbear and a drop bear. A number of these creatures later join the deer and ponies in opposing Well-to-Do's employees.

Issues #75-78

Issue #2

Two cloud gremlins named Big Boy and Runt create perpetually bad weather over Ponyville and feed off the misery of the ponies living there. Rainbow Dash eventually defeats them with a Sonic Double Rainboom.

Issue #6

Sweet Apple Acres is terrorized by a Sass Squash, a squash-shaped creature that steals apples and replaces them with squashes. The Apple family capture him, but it's revealed to be Granny Smith in disguise. In the end, Applejack discovers that the Sass Squash is real when she sees of photo of him and a young Granny Smith in a photo album.

Issue #7

The Cutie Mark Crusaders encounter and befriend a greater Equestrian mimicker, naming her "Imp" (short for the mimicker's scientific name "Globulus improbulus"). In the end, the CMC return Imp to her cave where her mother hugs her. Like changelings, mimickers are shape-shifters, but while changelings can take on the form of other ponies, mimickers can turn into anything but ponies. According to a book Twilight reads from, "mimickers...are curious and playful creatures. They love to use their powers to play tricks and jokes. When they are young, mimickers try out many different forms. When they become adults, they settle on one form."

Issue #8

One of Celestia's flashbacks shows an unspecified time in which Canterlot was attacked by an army of shadowy creatures, appearing to resemble the Nightmare Forces.

By an accident with a spell many of the food of the student room came to life and attacks the students, they are defeated by Inkwell when she uses the same spell to bring life to a statue of bunny who eat the living food.

Issue #9

Spike buys dehydrated sea beasts in the mail and helps them grow with growth potion, to the point at which Spike was no longer able to control them. He teaches them the ways of the world until they become smart enough to live on their own.

Issue #10

Luna mentions finding an owlbear while on patrol in the Everfree Forest and in the mini-comic "Luna Gets a Pet."

Issue #3

Princess Celestia and Spike are attacked and taken captive by three large rock lobsters, but they free them after hearing from Spike that "dragons eat rocks." The blue rock lobster is named Iggy, the yellow one Metty, and the red one Seddy.

Issue #4

A crystal ghost haunts the Crystal Castle, scaring the staff and taking books from the library. The ghost Twilight Sparkle and Shining Armor find is a bard and lover of books who was once captured by King Sombra. He is freed by the end of the story, becoming the new librarian of the Crystal Castle.

Also mentioned in the issue are wood sprites and night sprites.

Twilight Sparkle mentions that the monster-pedia has a section on ghosts.

Issue #14

A fire snail accidentally causes a string of fires around Fillydelphia.

Issue #28

Princess Luna and the Cutie Mark Crusaders encounter a mirrorca, a flying whale-like creature that can reflect all forms of magic with its mirror-like skin.

Issue #35

A squirm-spore uses its dust spores to cause hostility between Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer and bring stone statues and suits of armor to life. According to Star Swirl the Bearded's book The Ferocious Flora of Everfree Forest, the squirm-spore once did the same thing to him and Melvin the manticore.

In Pinkie Apple Pie, when the Apple family and Pinkie Pie pass through the "scariest cave in Equestria," the loud roaring of an unidentified beast can be heard. A snapshot on Pinkie's photo album reveals some of the cave's inhabitants, including a horned, frog-like amphibian and a flying, fish-like creature.

In Trade Ya!, a stall owner at the Rainbow Falls Traders Exchange deals in ancient beasts, including a winged creature with several eyes, a creature with a long tongue and mouth, an angler fish-like creature with one eye, and the horned frog-like amphibian previously seen in Pinkie Apple Pie.

In Make New Friends but Keep Discord, there are beasts around Discord's residence, including the creature with a long tongue and mouth previously seen in Trade Ya!, the angler fish-like creature with one eye previously seen in Trade Ya!, a brighter-colored version of the flying, fish-like creature previously seen in Pinkie Apple Pie, and another​[​specify​]​ creature.

The storybook Good Night, Baby Flurry Heart features a giant pony, modeled after King Sombra.

The chapter book Rainbow Dash and the Daring Do Double Dare introduces colossa-gators. They are similar to normal alligators but are characterized as having iridescent, scaly green skin and red eyes, and being as large as ursa minors.In the same book, Zecora mentions ghosts when talking about the Spirit Circle.